Is Sea-Gull a good brand?

The 1963 is a bona-fide classic.

Their movements -are- on the cheap side, but generally well regarded & reliable.

I Bought this recently & it's a neat watch.

Take care to make sure the movement has been oiled. Alot of them leave the factory dry.

China are not the highest quality producers in watches/ movements but seagull is a noted brand particularly for their movements, as Chinese brands go seagull is one of or possibly the best of the bunch.

I would gladly own one but please don’t expect high horology 😂

I appreciate them putting Made In China on the dial. It’s far less nefarious than the practice of using Swiss Mov’t. Or Japan Mov’t.

Mine is a few years older than yours. It has the same ST-05 movement, but less decorated. It is a good little watch. You need better friends.

Doesn't matter whether a watch is 'cheap' or not, it's how it makes you feel. If you like it, that's all that is important, your friend can go and play in the traffic, it doesn't matter what they think! 😜

Beautiful watch

Partly Sea-Gull are ‘cheap’ because labor costs in China are super low. That’s especially true the farther back you go. A vintage Sea-Gull probably had close to zero labor cost.

They can be good though. Sea-Gull might be considered China’s‘national heritage’ watch brand.

I was convinced that Sea Gull watches and movements are cheap and poorly made but you should check their Chinese website and you will find that there are quite nice horology pieces. Not on the cheap side also 😄 The 1963 I think is not made by them but by other companies. Dig in the intertets. I think there was a English language YouTube channel about watches in China talking also about Sea Gull

It's a classic and great looking movement, but I try to avoid buy anything made in China or Russia

There is absolutely nothing wrong with SeaGull movements. Yes, they are Chinese-made, but Sea Gull is one of the few Chinese brands that actually puts a lot of effort into quality control, thus, their movements are known for their accuracy and reliability. As others have said, don't expect "high horology," because they still aren't in league with the higher-end Swiss movements, but they aren't junk, either. They're just good, reliable watches at a good (non-luxury) price, that just so happen to be made in China.

I think it looks great. The situation with the labor aside, each piece was crafted (partially)by human hands. It's got a reliable movement and a classic design. I love my Seagull 1963. Wear it with pride, especially if your Chinese.

I think your friend is confused about the difference between inexpensive and cheap

The movements are good from an architectural perspective, qc is not.

I don't know my friend but that's a good watch 👌

In all things China you get the quality you pay for. Actual Sea-Gull and San Martin watches are usually better but you pay more for that and thats the way it should be. A Sea-Gull 1963 is a third more than their competitors because they try to do it right from the get go. When you cut $100.00 out of the cost of your watch you leave a lot of QC off the table. Its like oats... you can buy them before the horse or after...

Sea-Gull is among one of the largest suppliers of mechanical movements and parts for mechanical movements in the world. Like Swatch Group and Seiko, they sell under many brands as well as to european microbrands. I would be cautious of generalizing quality by country of origin. Since no country imposes national quality assurance laws, it seems generalizing by country origin is extremely error prone. I do own at least 4 of their movements and am happy with all of them. ST1901 (1963), ST1908, ST3600 and a flying tourbillion (don’t know the movement model)

Wow. Nice watch.

Let your friends know that most “Swiss made” watches have at least some components from China.

And if those same friends love Steinhart, but hate San Martin, then they are hypocrites. They both make Rolex homages. One just happens to be in Europe.

Sea-Gull is a legit brand with real history.

Get it now while that's still a possibility. If anything it will be a historical piece from China pre-collapse!

Like a lot of Chinese watches these days, Sea-Gull is a nice watch for the money if you take the time to hunt down a good price. At retail, the iconic 1963 is overpriced, but they can be had for a lot less. You have to be careful to get a real one as I've heard they've been replicated.

Mine was dry and the hulk must have tightened all the screws because they were really hard to unscrew! It ran beautifully after I serviced it though!

I got a buddy like that

Love the analogy

Nice!

This will be my 1st foray into disassembly.

Seemed like the 3600 would be a good start

since the parts are at least a bit bigger.

Fingers crossed.

Nice!

This will be my 1st foray into disassembly.

Seemed like the 3600 would be a good start

since the parts are at least a bit bigger.

Fingers crossed.

It seems the Chinese are getting better and learning from past manufacturing and marketing mistakes. In 2010, I bought a $20 generic automatic Oyster replica with "MQJ" silkscreened on the dial. It has a nice raised badge of a mountain in the top center of the dial, and I ran across a forum post about removing the "MQJ" with solvent and once removed, it looked really nice in the accompanying photos. (maybe archive.org has a cached copy).

Flash forward to 2023, they seem to be making nicer, less rough around the edges timepieces, much like Japanese cars, appliances and electronics morphed from junk in the 50's and 60's to high quality by the 80's and 90's. In any country, where there's a will, there's a way to make it happen.🤑

Max's maxim #1. Your wrist.. your rules. Keep the watch, dump the friend.

Yes, last week the customer services from Seagull watches official website https://seagullwatches.com told me that Seagull 1963 Original Edition is out of stock, they will try their best to take some products back from offline stores, most offline stores only retain one seagull 1963.

The ST5 vintage you show may have been inexpensive (and I can't vouch for total authenticity because there are lots of so-called NOS pieces made fully or partially from NOS parts) but...

Back in the day, the Sea-Gull ST5s were Grade 1 watches, meaning the factory was held to the highest government standards of the time, and they commanded a high price in Chinese terms.

The ST5 is a very good movement, and since it already easily met the Grade 1 standards, it was one of only three domestic watch movements that was exempted from the government's mid-1970s mandatory change to production of the Tongji (standard) movement.